Month: February 2025

Can YouTube group’s child-predator busts hold up in court? Attorneys are skeptical they will

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Source: palmbeachpost.com 2/6/25 Among the issues the predator cases will face: Did those arrested know their rights? Did the YouTubers collect enough evidence? Was there entrapment?   WEST PALM BEACH — By late January, nearly two dozen men awaited trial on the suspicion that they drove to Delray Beach in hopes of raping a child. None was caught by police. Instead, a team of civilian “predator catchers” — adult YouTubers who pose online as children in hopes of identifying would-be pedophiles — lured each to a public place, confronted them with the…

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No One Prepares You for the Sex Offender Registry Phone Scams

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Source: filtermag.org 2/5/25 In April 2024 I picked up a call from an unknown number at the grocery store where I work. The first few moments were enough to send shocks of terror through my body. “Jeff Noland? This is Officer Walker with Davidson County Police Department. We have a warrant out on you.” My mind raced. What did I do? I can’t go back to prison. I can’t ever go back to prison. I won’t make it out alive this time. The person on the other end of the call…

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CA: Weeklong human trafficking sting operation nets 547 arrests across California

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Source: ktla.com 2/4/25 The Los Angeles Police Department teamed up with the L.A. County Sheriff Department’s Regional Human Trafficking Task Force and over 100 other law enforcement agencies and victim advocacy groups to conduct “Operation Reclaim & Rebuild,” a weeklong sting into human trafficking across California.  According to an LAPD media release, the operation – conducted between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1 –primarily focused on rescuing victims of sexual slavery and human trafficking, apprehending their captors and disrupting the demand for vulnerable individuals.   As a result of “Operation Reclaim &…

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South Africa: Justice minister’s decision to publicise list of convicted sexual offenders welcomed

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Source: timeslive.co.za 2/3/25 Justice and constitutional development minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has announced plans to make public the list of convicted sexual offenders and gender-based violence (GBV) perpetrators by the end of February. Kubayi made the announcement last week in a move to combat femicide. “As I got into the portfolio, one of the issues reported was the need for the department to release the register, to make it public, of those who have been sentenced and convicted of GBV to protect our children. I have agreed we will release this.…

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ID: Idaho Supreme Court vacates child porn conviction over unconstitutional search

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Source: cdapress.com 2/4/25 COEUR d’ALENE — The Idaho Supreme Court has vacated a Post Falls man’s conviction for possessing child sexual abuse material because police obtained key evidence against him by unconstitutionally impounding his car. A jury convicted Chadlen D. ____, 40, of sexual exploitation of a child by possession of sexually exploitative material, a felony, in 2022. He received a 10-year prison sentence, the maximum possible under the law, with parole eligibility after five years.  In a unanimous opinion penned by Justice Cynthia Meyer, the Supreme Court determined that…

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UT: Bill SB155 proposes to make it easier to be removed from Utah’s sex offender registry

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Source: ksltv.com 2/1/25 SALT LAKE CITY — A controversial bill proposing changes to Utah’s sex offender registry was met with both support and criticism on Capitol Hill Friday. When SB155 was first released by Senator Todd Weiler last week it was met with harsh criticism, on Friday a substitute bill was presented in the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee. The original version of SB155 focused on moving certain criminal offenses with a lifetime sex offender registration to the list of offenses only requiring a 10-year registration. But now this substitute bill…

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